System and method for matching capabilities of access points with those required by an application

Abstract

A system and method uses a communication request and/or historical data collected by one or more devices to identify whether to fulfill the request using ad hoc networking or access points. If an access point is determined to be used, the system and method attempts to identify those access points that can best fulfill the request and then attempts to use such access points to fulfill the request.

Description

RELATED APPLICATION[0001]This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60 / 846,521, entitled, “Method and Apparatus for Matching Capabilities of Access Points with Those Required by an Application” filed by Assimakis Tzamaloukas on Sep. 23, 2006 and having the same assignee as the present application and is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION[0002]The present invention is related to computer software and more specifically to communications computer software.BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION[0003]Many computer systems communicate using wireless network communications defined by the 802.11 family of specifications. Wireless communication under 802.11 may be made via either of two types of networking. One type of networking uses a conventional access point that operates as a base station to receive communications from one or more devices and forward the communications to another device, or to a network such as the Inter...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0015]To locate an access point, the system and method identifies current characteristics such as the location, type of day and time of day, and matches the characteristics and the information regarding the request to the access points about which it has information, and attempts to select an access point that best matches the request or one that

Problems solved by technology

When the computer system is in an automobile, access point discovery and use is much more complex.

However, there are still problems with such an arrangement.

The access point scanning and discovery process still takes time, and so by the time an access point is found, much of the time the access point is available can be consumed in the discovery process.

Once an access point is discovered, it may not be appropriate for use by the application, for example, because the available bandwidth on the back end of the access point is too low, or the quality of the signal is too erratic to be useful, i

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